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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
For immediate release: Monday, February 24, 2003
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
Oil companies, with enormous clout in the Bush
White House, will make huge profits from controlling postwar Iraqi oil.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "Oil isn't the only
motivation, but it's a major reason President Bush plans to launch an
invasion of Iraq," said Mark Dunlea, Chair of the Green Party of
New York State. "While the White House and its apologists deny it
regularly, the evidence is clear that the Bush Administration and
American oil companies are trying to win control over the world's second
largest source of oil."
Iraq has the second largest oil reserves, after Saudi
Arabia, with 11% of the world's oil. "Other Arab and Muslim
nations would recognize the appropriated Iraqi oil money as proof of the
U.S.'s motivation for the invasion," added Dunlea.
The Green Party of the United States has called for
massive reduction in the U.S.'s reliance on fossil fuels, calling for
conversion to clean wind, solar, and fuel cell energy and the promotion
of energy efficiency. Greens also protest the influence of oil and other
corporations over U.S. government and public policy and have demanded
extensive reform in campaign finance laws.
"Oil and gas companies hardly need to lobby the
Bush White House to get their way," said Beth Moore Haines, Media
Coordinator for the Green Party of California. "They contributed
$26.7 million in campaign funds to Bush and other Republican candidates
in 2000, and $18 million to Republicans in 2002. Bush, Cheney, and
National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice are all former oil company
execs. Big Oil policy is White House policy."
There's ample evidence of the importance of oil in
the drive to invade Iraq, say Greens:
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U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, Republican Party
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has threatened
France and Russia, saying that if they don't support Bush's invasion
plans they'll get no share in Iraq's oil resources (Oil and Gas
International's 'World Industry News', January 27, 2003).
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The Bush Administration's most outspoken
war-for-oil proponent is Richard Perle, chair of the Defense Policy
Board, a Pentagon advisory group. Perle's Rand Corporation report
briefing submitted in July, 2002 recommended invading Iraq as a
first step in gaining U.S. control over oil throughout the Middle
East, especially Saudi Arabia (Boston Globe, September 10, 2002).
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"Oil giants including ExxonMobil,
ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips are the most likely to lead any
development efforts in a post-war Iraq," according to energy
analyst Peter Zeihan of Stratfor, an intelligence-consulting group
based in Austin, Texas ("Reaping the spoils of war: Ousting
Saddam could put U.S. oil giants in 'driver's seat',"
CBS.MarketWatch.com, January 31, 2003).
Executives from U.S. oil firms have been conferring with officials
from the White House, State Department and Defense Department on
lucrative contracts to rebuild and run Iraq's oil industry after the
war, according to The Wall Street Journal. "[T]he early spoils
would probably go to companies needed to keep Iraq's already
run-down oil operations running, especially if facilities were
further damaged in a war. Oil-services firms such as Halliburton
Co., where Vice President Dick Cheney formerly served as chief
executive, and Schlumberger Ltd. are seen as favorites for what
could be as much as $1.5 billion in contracts. The major oil and
natural-gas producers won't be far behind." ("U.S. Oil
Wants to Work in Iraq", January 16, 2003)
Such reports have prompted consumer advocate and 2000 Green
presidential candidate Ralph Nader to ask about the extent to which
oil companies were involved in the decision to invade Iraq.
"The American people also have a right to know what was
discussed in the numerous secret meetings Vice President Cheney's
national energy task force held with oil and gas executives."
("What Role the Oil Industry Playing in Bush's Drive to
War?", by Ralph Nader, CommonDreams.org, February 14, 2003)
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The U.S. consumes 26% of the world's oil, but
possesses only 2% of the world's oil reserves. The U.S.
imports 9.8 million barrels of oil a day, more than half of its 19.5
million barrels a day consumption. Cheney's national energy
plan, drafted during the secret meetings with oil executives, wants
the U.S. to import 17 million barrels a day, or 2/3 of daily oil
consumption, by 2020. The plan makes energy security, including
control over the availability of oil to other nations, a priority of
U.S. foreign policy.
Outside the U.S., the oil motivation is more openly
discussed. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged in a recent
speech to British ambassadors that oil is the main motivation for
Blair's support for Bush's war, much more so than any threat of weapons
of mass destruction.
"The Blair government is concerned about global
energy supplies, especially oil imports, during the coming years,"
said Beth Moore Haines. "And the Bush Administration and its oil
company backers want to control the Iraqi oil spigot, whether or not any
of that oil actually comes to America. That's what makes Bush's planned
invasion such a blatant and dangerous exercise in empire building."
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Green Party antiwar mobilization page
http://www.gp.org/peace.html
Photos, video, and audio from the Green Party's
February 14 press conference in New York
http://www.gpnys.org/press.html
search: cpr, irq, pce, fpol
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